“When I was 9 years old, I wanted to play for a baseball team and I wanted to go on a school trip. My parents wanted me to pay for it. So, I used a mower from my parents and pushed it around my neighborhood mowing yards,” said Zadok.
Little did he know that the work ethic instilled in him at an early age would lead him to start his own successful lawn care company called Z Dubs. “I own it. I run it all and I’m responsible for it,” said the 17-year-old TKHS senior who now services 60-70 customers. “I like it. I like working outside and I want to keep growing my business.”
Most of his customers learn about him from referrals and word of mouth. “I think overall people have been impressed with what I do. They say I’m polite and on time and I get the job done. I know how to write up a quote for their business and then stick to that quote. Most of them don’t know I’m only 17 years old.”
His lawn service business includes mowing, landscaping, lawn care, dethatching, aerating, and leaf cleanup. He rents shop space in Wayland to store and maintain his equipment including his own truck and trailer to transport his riding mowers, leaf blowers and other equipment.
He credits his parents with helping him get started and expanding his business. He also credits his high school teachers with helping him develop his people skills, meet customers, and write up professional quotes.
“I think Mrs. (Rachel) Cobb’s marketing and business class has really helped me a lot. It’s just given me more people skills and understanding of how to run the business.” The high school’s Work Experience Program also allows him to leave school early for work. Those extra daylight hours, especially in the fall, make a big difference.
Zadok will turn 18 and graduate this spring, after which he will really be able to focus his attention on growing the business and adding more crews to help. “I’m getting calls from condominium owners and associations now and I’m really ready to take it up another level,” he said.
Today he can pack up his trailer with all the equipment and be on a job site in no time, but that wasn’t always the case. “When I started, I had to push my lawn mower all over the neighborhood to mow yards. Sometimes my mom (Chris) would put the mower in the back of the van and take me to different places.”
His push mowers have been replaced with the latest stand-up, wide-cutting models along with industrial-sized blowers. It’s been a lot of lawns, a lot of hours, and a lot of work to get to this point. “I go to work as soon as I get out of school and lots of times I’m still mowing in the dark. I have headlights on all my mowers now,” he said.
Starting his own business hasn’t been easy. A few years ago, his blower was stolen when he went into a gas station to purchase oil. When some local business owners heard about the theft, they joined together to get him a new blower and keep his business growing.
“I always try to look for the good in people and I kind of lost that when my blower got stolen at first. But then, these businesses made sure I got another one and it really restored my faith in people,” he said.
He also looks for satisfied customers. “It just makes me feel good about the job I’m doing when they appreciate what I’ve done. I want to do a job I’m proud of,” he said.
Zadok admits going to school and working all day isn’t easy. “I’m not going to have a perfect GPA, but I’m going to have experience running my own business when I get out of high school,” he said. “And I’m going to be ready to keep it growing and expanding.”